People & Inspiration

Couple Peg: Trever And Rachelle Love, Going The Distance For Love

Thursday is Feels Day on Lifestyle! And what better way to celebrate this than by featuring real-life couples who totally represent #relationshipgoals? Learn from our choice couple pegs on all things love and life!

He was based in Singapore and she was in the Philippines, but despite the four-hour flight and approximately 1,463 miles of distance between them, Rachelle and Trever never let the circumstances get in the way of their relationship. Now, happily married and living together at last, the lovebirds can definitely look back and say that going through that phase was definitely worth it, and #TeamLove wins!

It was at a CrossFit competition that the two first met, “We were both in Korea competing at CrossFit Regionals and he was from Singapore and I was from the Philippine Team. It was our second year and it was also their second year and that was the first time we met," recalls Rachelle.

So what was their first impression of each other? For Rachelle, “Hmmm... wala cute. And he was friendly.” Trever on the other hand thought that, “She’s very attractive. That’s really my impression of her but when she spoke, when we finally said some stuff to each other, she was extremely friendly and welcoming as well.” The two kept in touch after the competition and less than a month after, Trever flew to the Philippines to see Rachelle. “That’s kind of how we started dating, I guess. Although it wasn’t super clear cut because we were really just getting to know each other but we kept in touch and we’d see each other semi-regularly every month in competitions, in Singapore and Malaysia," he adds.

Early into their relationship Trever says that he pretty much knew where things were headed. "I had my thoughts of it pretty early on because I'm 33 and so like it's you're not young and stupid, like you kinda know what you’re looking for, I was just looking for simplicity, and we fit together. So I kinda feel early on that it was going in the right direction for me pretty quick and then when we started talking about it, she kinda agreed with it as well and she could go that way as well and that kind of became the directon we were kinda leaning towards." And when he felt that it was the right time, Trever didn't waste any second and asked for her parents' blessings the next time he was in Manila, after which he took Rachelle to where they had their first date at Antonio's Breakfast in Tagaytay, and popped the big question.

Now, nine months into their married life, we visited Mr. and Mrs. Love at Central Ground CrossFit, where they inspired us with their winning love story—learn how to make a relationship, long-distance or not, work, the Love way:

The goal: Succeeding at a long-distance relationship. While LDR doesn’t always work for most couples, with factors such time difference, trust, temptations all aorund, and sometimes just the thought of being physically apart and not seeing or feeling each other, getting in the way, Rachelle and Trever are proof that it's possible to conquer it.

How the Loves do it: “Communication, that’s what it is. It’s such an easy thing to say but to actually accomplish it, it depends on people because for us it wasn’t exactly a difficult thing. Also you really have to trust and you really have to put out the trust. Like I had to put out an energy that she can feel that I’m being honest with her no matter if it’s over the phone or Skype, if she can’t feel that I’m really being honest with her then she probably will not be able to trust me fully and I feel like we established that from the get-go. I was always very honest with her about my intentions, like what’s happening with me in my life, where I was going, where I wa , it’s those conversations that you got to have. I don’t think she ever felt like she doesn’t know where I was, what I was doing, and I was always kind of in contact with her letting her know. It’s really trust and communication, but like you really have to do it full-on and not just say it half-a**edly,” explains Trever.

Rachelle adds, "It’s really going out of your way to be compassionate and empathize with the person and just being unselfish in that way and thinking, “'Oh it’s fine because I’m not really doing anything wrong,' but thinking more of the other person and what that person might feel or think because you were there, so just not put yourself in that situation so it doesn’t create distrust or any doubt and we keep it at that proactively during our long-distance relationship. Not that I tell him not to do things, but he would just, on his own, take the initiative—for example, there are some people there that I’m not comfortable with or I might not be comfortable with, he’ll go out and say it like 'This is happening, this and that.' We just talk about everything and it's always been super transparent with us and even me like, whenever [I got out with] the opposite sex and it could be questionable even it's just platonic, especially if it’s just you and the other person. So us we’ve always been so transparent about that and I always tell him 'Hey I’m hanging out with this guy and if you’re not comfortable with it just tell me.'"

The goal: Being each other’s support system. As your partner’s better half, it’s important for you to be his or her main source of inspiration, motivation, and moral support.

How the Loves do it: “For me, supporting him [means] really becoming his sounding board—one of his responsibilities as the head coach of Primal Ape CrossFit is to create the programming for the box so everything that goes on in terms of workouts that’s all him, he does that. So when he’s planning that for the next month, or you know, in advance, he runs things by me, like 'What do you think about this?,' like check the programing and I look through it and I tell him what I think from the member's point-of-view or the person-doing-the-work-out point of view instead of being just one-sided, 'Oh coach says this or that,' I tried to be on the other side of things, being supportive of his schedules because he spends so much time working even when he’s at home because there are just too many things to do even if it feels like that, I know that he’s doing his best and I just try to be supportive of it and not nag him and be like, 'Forget about that, let's do this instead,' kind of thing," shares Rachelle.

The goal: Keep the fire burning. Regardless of how busy you are with work, spending time together is essential in keeping your relationship from going stale and lackluster. Date nights at least once a week will do wonders for your lives, take it from Rachelle and Trever.

How the Loves do it: “It’s just spending time with each other every day and connecting and not just living in the same house. Just staying connected and being each other’s best friends.” He notes, “We’re really busy, I’m really busy. She’s starting to become pretty busy when she has shoots and stuff and now that she’s coaching. I’m busy every day. It’s tough to spend time, realistically what we do together? We just kind of hang out but we try our best to do something every week and have date nights.”

The goal: Be part of the fitness revolution. In Trever and Rachelle's case, it's the CrossFit revolution, specifically. It was sometime in 2012 when the first CrossFit box in Manila opened its doors, and people started getting hooked on it. And while not all couples can say that they go to work with their partners, as it's normally either they're doing different things or only one of them is working, Rachelle and Trever are lucky enough to be doing the same thing—after all, if not for the sport, they would probably never met.

How the Loves do it: “We coach together, we train together, we talk about CrossFit together, we watch CrossFit together," says Trever. "It’s awesome to have that common ground. Some couples work when they’re like total opposites and some couples work when they’re together all the time doing the same thing and some people don’t work that way." CrossFit is indeed such a major part of their lives, both as a married couple and as individuals. As Rachelle explains, "CrossFit is so big in our lives, and I guess in anyone's life that does CrossFit. As you can see, people who get into CrossFit get so addicted to it that it's everything they talk about and I felt like before, if I was with someone who didn’t do it or didn’t really get it, it’ll be difficult to share that part in my life with them. When you feel proud of yourself for finishing this, or after completing a lift, and breaking your record and you’re super excited about that and when you come to someone who doesn’t really care about it, it brings you down a li'l bit so it's nice that we understand each other on that, we get to share in each other's victories and also frustrations when trainings get a lil bit frustrating."

The goal: Being stylishly on point. As a freelance stylist and former fashion editor of a magazine, it came as no surprise that when it comes to dressing up and shopping, Rachelle is there to aid her hubby.

How the Loves do it: “She picks my clothes." says Trever. And Rachelle was quick to explain, “Yeah, but he’s so simple. He comes from a lifestyle that's so laidback—like in Singapore it's so hot that wearing pants is not really practical, especially in the industry that he used to be in (Trever used to be a stunt man) so everything he did is just active and didn't really require him to be dressy or to be dressed in a smart casual outfit, so he really wears shorts every day in Singapore. So here it shocks him that he needs to wear pants. I think that’s one of the first things that we did, we bought pants, we got jeans and stuff."

"I just let him be, he’s got his own style, even if he’s super casual I just helped when it gets a lil bit formal like when he needs buttondowns, or pocket squares, and stuff like that. Like he got two suits, one of which is his wedding suit, one is blue and one is black and he's like super chill about it, 'Okay, I'm good, as long as it fits.'”